


Interlude

by flashforeward



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-16 02:57:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18512485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flashforeward/pseuds/flashforeward
Summary: Ben and Klaus take a moment.





	Interlude

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Meilan_Firaga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/gifts).



> Thank you to D for betaing.

“Try again.”

 

 _Try again_.

 

The voices merge and Klaus has to cover his ears for a second, squeeze his eyes shut against the looming visage of his father. Has to remind himself the man’s not here. It’s just him and Ben right now, sitting on his bed in the facsimile of his bedroom that Five created in this facsimile of their house in this facsimile of the world. A pocket dimension, Five said, where they can regroup and _think_. Where Vanya can rest and, when she’s ready, learn control.

 

Reginald is not here. Not even the ghost of him. The only ghost Klaus ever sees now is Ben, the only voice he hears that no one else can is Ben’s. It’s all the perks of being high without the ODs or the crashes.

 

Except for when this - practicing, experimenting - reminds him of his childhood.

 

That’s when he wishes he were high.

 

“Klaus?” Ben’s voice is gentle. There’s a cool breeze by Klaus’s neck that must be Ben trying to pat him on the back. “Klaus, are you okay?”

 

Klaus shakes his head hard. Not an answer to Ben’s question but an attempt to shake himself free from the downward spiral that’s pulling him back to the past. He still hears his father’s frustrated voice in his head, but he forces his eyes open and looks up at Ben. Tries to cement himself in the moment.

 

Reginald is not here.

 

It’s just him and Ben trying to recreate what happened at the concert. There’s no pressure to be perfect immediately, no disappointment when he can’t channel his brother through him into the physical realm. No threat of long hours in crypts. No sudden ghostly visitors to tell him what his siblings - mainly Diego - have done.

 

He pulls in a shuddering breath and lowers his hands, reaching for Ben. They can’t touch, but Ben rests his palm over Klaus’s and leaves it there, the coolness of the almost-contact a life line Klaus can hold on to as he drags himself back up from the past.

 

“Sorry,” he says when he has control of his voice again. It’s still shakier than he’d like, but at least he can speak.

 

“It’s fine,” Ben says and Klaus knows he means it but he still feels like he has to apologize, like it’s his own fault he can’t control his power. Because for so long he was told it was. He wasn’t good enough, wasn’t trying hard enough, didn’t care enough.

 

Once, with enough drugs, he’d’ve laughed at the hold his father still has on him. Now he just feels drained and depressed, cut open and laid bare.

 

“We can stop if you need,” Ben says. “We don’t have to figure this out immediately, we have time.”

 

Time.

 

They have time because they’re in a pocket dimension. They have time because Five isn’t sure how they got in let alone how he’s going to get them _out_. They have time, most of all, because Reginald Hargreeves isn’t breathing down their necks, insisting they must master their abilities on his schedule and if they can’t or won’t…

 

Well.

 

He’ll break them, like Klaus, or lock them away, like Vanya.

 

And look how well any of that turned out.

 

Klaus starts to laugh then, uncontrollable giggles that shake his body. He falls to his side, staring up at Ben’s confused expression and laughs all the harder at the sight of it. “We almost ended the world,” he says. No. Wait. “We _did_ end the world,” he amends. “It’s back there ending while we sit here. And.” He pauses, struggles to gain control of himself. “Ben, it’s all dad’s fault,” he finally manages. “Dad’s the screw up this time!”

 

Ben stares down at him, brow furrowed. “Are you high?” he asks.

 

Klaus shakes his head. “There’re no drugs here,” he says. He knows, he checked every one of his usual hiding places. He asked Five how to _get_ drugs. He even considered trying to make his own in the kitchen, but he decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Or the risk, since he’s pretty sure Diego would kill him if he tried.

 

Ben still looks concerned.

 

Klaus blows out a breath and reaches for his late brother, intertwining their fingers when he finds Ben’s hand solid under his touch. He tries not to think about it as they sit there in heavy silence, tries not to focus on the feel of Ben’s hand in his because he knows if he pays it too much attention Ben will return to being incorporeal and Klaus needs this. Needs to hold his brother’s hand. Needs to feel Ben solid beside him. Because even at his worst, even at his lowest, Ben has always been his strength.

 

Ben is both the reason Klaus Hargreeves isn’t afraid of dying and the reason that, despite everything, he wants to keep on living.

 

“Promise me when we go back, you’ll stay clean,” Ben says after a few minutes.

 

Klaus squeezes his hand. “I can’t,” he says. He turns his head, forces himself to meet Ben’s gaze. “I can’t promise that, but.” He swallows and looks away again. “I can promise that I’ll try.”

 

Ben squeezes back. “That’s enough.”

 

And those words, those two simple words, make Klaus feel light in a way he hasn’t since childhood. Being enough, doing enough… Klaus is used to the opposite, to not being enough or doing enough. That simple phrase is a strike to Klaus’s heart and he does nothing to fight the tears that burn in his eyes. His body shakes as he cries and Ben’s hand slips through his as his brother lays down beside him. Ben’s not solid anymore, so he can’t hold Klaus, but he stays beside him through the tears. Like he stayed beside him through withdrawal.

 

Like he’ll stay beside him whatever comes.

 

There’s a knock at the door and Klaus sits up on his elbows, wiping tears away with his sleeve. “Yeah?” he calls. The door creaks open and Allison is there, notebook held up, three words scrawled across the page: _Vanya is awake_. Klaus is up in an instant. “I’ll be up in a minute,” he says. He glances at Ben and knows his own expression mirrors the concern in his brother’s eyes, but they can’t put this off forever.

 

Because they may have more time than they’re used to, but there’s still so much they have to do.


End file.
